Luk 8:19 Now Jesus’ mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him because of the crowd.
Luk 8:20 So he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”
Luk 8:21 But he responded to them, “My mother and my brothers are the ones who hear the word of God and do it.”

deference in the kingdom

The messenger expected Jesus to drop what he was doing and immediately welcome his mother and brothers, yielding to their wishes out of respect. Jesus saw this conversation as a means to further illustrate his sermon. He had been teaching about hearing the word of God and putting it into practice. These are the people who are first on Christ’s deference list.